What the EU wants is money and favor from those who dislike the big guys, not competition. If you want to punish Intel for wheeling and dealing in a way you don't like... don't buy their products and try to convince others to do the same and work toward convincing the OEMs that other companies chipsets will gain them more income and happier customers.

All this does is provide an illegitimate advantage to those companies (AMD and VIA) who aren't as well established. It's a subsidy, a bailout.

It would seem that you are not at all familiar with articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty of the European Union, and indeed other similar laws all over the world.

It is not acceptable to distort the market. A company such as Intel is simply not allowed to try to put a competitor out of business by paying money to third parties so that they do not use Intel competitors' products.

Under EU law, very large market shares raise a presumption that a firm is dominant, which may be rebuttable. If a firm has a dominant position, then there is "a special responsibility not to allow its conduct to impair competition on the common market".